Lawsuit: Cops Thought They Had Deleted Footage Taken by Woman They Arrested — They Were Wrong

Footage of police allegedly tasing and arresting a 36-year-old Baltimore woman who was filming the arrest of another man surfaced online this week, despite an alleged attempt by the officers involved to delete the video.

The 135-second video depicts a March 30 incident and was initially deleted before being recovered from the woman's iCloud account, according to a $7 million lawsuit that could be filed against the Baltimore City Police Department as early as Thursday.

Kianga Mwamba was driving home when she noticed an arrest taking place while stuck in traffic, website Ars Technica reported. She said she started filming when the man being arrested was allegedly kicked by police.

However, after her light turned green, an officer is then seen on camera telling the woman to continue driving.

"You telling me I can't record?" she asked.

Mwamba then said she would park her car so she could continue recording. In the video, however, she can be heard contending she couldn't move out of the way because of officers blocking her path.

"Out of the car! Out of the car!" an officer then suddenly instructed her.

Video then appears to capture her being forcibly removed from the vehicle as she shouts, "He burning me, he burning me."

"You a dumb b**ch, you know that?" an officer is heard saying at the end of the video.

"What did I do?" Mwamba asked.

"You just tried to run over an officer," the cop responded.

Image source: YouTube

Mwamba was ultimately arrested for allegedly trying to run over two police officers. A police report filed by an officer claimed she accelerated and hit an officer in the legs. The charges were later dropped, however, Ars Technica reported.

The 36-year-old provided her cell phone to an officer while in custody in an attempt to prove she wasn't trying to run officers over, according to the lawsuit. Her attorney told Ars Technica officers removed it as part of a "coverup."

Police released a statement condemning the language used by officers as "both offensive and unacceptable."

"The video does not capture enough information to draw definitive conclusions about what transpired before, during and after the arrest," the statement said, according to the Baltimore Sun. "What is clear is that the language used is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

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